The Sensex remained negative during noon in today's session.

The majority of other Asian bourses also looked weak.

Banking, IT and telecom scrips were topping the declining charts.

Earlier, the 30-share index jumped into the positive for a short period from its opening lows.

The Sensex, which belled its today's session at 18,444.24, stood at 18,384.19, down 70.75 points as against its last closure at 18,454.94.

At the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the broad-based Nifty was trading 0.29% down at 5,524.4.

The BSE midcap index declined 0.19% and the BSE smallcap index remained up by 0.23%.

The market breadth was tilted towards the pessimistic zone with 1,395 scrips progressing as against 1,402 stocks slumping and 108 remaining unaltered.

Other major Asian stock markets remained negative, taking signs from Wall Street's declination on Thursday and prior to the release of US job figures today that market analysts said could come in poorer than anticipated.

The Japanese Nikkei ended 1.96% down at 9,179.38, whilst Hong Kong's Hang Seng remained 0.71% down at 20,922.46.

The Chinese Shanghai Composite index was trading 1.28% down at 2,653.58.